Hamartia Antidote
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https://www.ft.com/content/7a7fe228-c208-11e8-95b1-d36dfef1b89a
Profit growth at China’s large industrial companies slowed to a five-month low last month in what analysts say is a sign the US-China trade dispute is hurting the world’s second-largest economy. Industrial profits rose 9.2 per cent year on year in August, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, down sharply from growth of 16.2 per cent in July. That was the slowest pace since March and marked the fourth straight month of slowing growth. Iris Pang, ING economist, said the latest data showed that the trade war between the world’s two largest economies – which escalated this week with the imposition on Monday of a new US 10 per cent tariff on about $200bn of Chinese imports – has started to sting China’s manufacturers.
“It is difficult to find an excuse not to blame the trade war,” she said, adding factories with foreign investment appeared to be among the worst hit. Ms Pang added: Foreign-owned factories have faced slower profit growth (+7.6% YoY) than Chinese-owned private enterprises (+10.0% YoY), and of course more so compared to state-owned enterprises (SOEs) at 26.7% YoY. We believe that the higher profit growth of SOEs come from some projects that could be related to fiscal stimulus, eg, railway infrastructure projects. And those no so profitable infrastructure projects, eg, anti-pollution, could be under local government financial vehicles, which are not considered as local government entities but corporate entities. Analysts at Goldman Sachs said the drop in industrial profit growth also reflected a “high base” from August 2017. While profit growth was slower in some metal manufacturing sectors and chemical and carmaking, earnings from electrical machinery manufacturing accelerated. “Looking ahead, we continue to see headwinds to industrial profit growth in the rest of the year, based on our expectation of gradual moderation in industrial production growth, as well as potentially slower [producer price] inflation,” Goldman Sachs analysts said.
Profit growth at China’s large industrial companies slowed to a five-month low last month in what analysts say is a sign the US-China trade dispute is hurting the world’s second-largest economy. Industrial profits rose 9.2 per cent year on year in August, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, down sharply from growth of 16.2 per cent in July. That was the slowest pace since March and marked the fourth straight month of slowing growth. Iris Pang, ING economist, said the latest data showed that the trade war between the world’s two largest economies – which escalated this week with the imposition on Monday of a new US 10 per cent tariff on about $200bn of Chinese imports – has started to sting China’s manufacturers.
“It is difficult to find an excuse not to blame the trade war,” she said, adding factories with foreign investment appeared to be among the worst hit. Ms Pang added: Foreign-owned factories have faced slower profit growth (+7.6% YoY) than Chinese-owned private enterprises (+10.0% YoY), and of course more so compared to state-owned enterprises (SOEs) at 26.7% YoY. We believe that the higher profit growth of SOEs come from some projects that could be related to fiscal stimulus, eg, railway infrastructure projects. And those no so profitable infrastructure projects, eg, anti-pollution, could be under local government financial vehicles, which are not considered as local government entities but corporate entities. Analysts at Goldman Sachs said the drop in industrial profit growth also reflected a “high base” from August 2017. While profit growth was slower in some metal manufacturing sectors and chemical and carmaking, earnings from electrical machinery manufacturing accelerated. “Looking ahead, we continue to see headwinds to industrial profit growth in the rest of the year, based on our expectation of gradual moderation in industrial production growth, as well as potentially slower [producer price] inflation,” Goldman Sachs analysts said.